Intentions to Marry, 1922 Bay of Islands to Raglan

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840505, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1922 is bound in eight volumes (a to h) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1922b contains pages 423-876, covering districts from Bay of Islands to Raglan

[NOTE: roughly one-third of the images from this register were too out of focus to use, this will hopefully be rectified soon]

Page 498

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 31 December 1922 Registrar H. G. Hill

Date of Notice

Names and Surnames of Parties

BDM Match

Condition

Calling or Profession

Age

Dwelling Place

Length of Residence

Marriage Place

Folio

Consent

Date of Certificate

Officiating Minister

134

12 October 1922

William Roger Corcoran
Clarice Patience Ferris

William Roger Corcoran
Clarice Patience Ferris
💍 1922/9575

Bachelor
Spinster

Station Manager
Domestic Duties

20
19

Gisborne
Mangapapa, Poverty Bay

16 years
life

At the aunt of the bridegroom, 10 Lytton Road, Gisborne

8365

Alice Mary Murray (Mother) and Charles Henry Ferris (Father)

12 October 1922

Rev. Thomas Kane, Roman Catholic Minister

No	134
Date of Notice	12 October 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Roger Corcoran	Clarice Patience Ferris
	💍 1922/9575
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Station Manager	Domestic Duties
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Mangapapa, Poverty Bay
Length of Residence	16 years	life
Marriage Place	At the aunt of the bridegroom, 10 Lytton Road, Gisborne
Folio	8365
Consent	Alice Mary Murray (Mother) and Charles Henry Ferris (Father)
Date of Certificate	12 October 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Kane, Roman Catholic Minister

135

13 October 1922

Eric Edward Aylward
Mary Veronica Walshe

Eric Edward Aylward
Mary Veronica Walshe
💍 1922/9576

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Schoolteacher

25
25

Gisborne
Makaraka

25 years
5 years

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne

8366

13 October 1922

Rev. Thomas Kane, Roman Catholic Minister

No	135
Date of Notice	13 October 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eric Edward Aylward	Mary Veronica Walshe
	💍 1922/9576
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Schoolteacher
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Makaraka
Length of Residence	25 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne
Folio	8366
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 October 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Kane, Roman Catholic Minister

136

13 October 1922

Edward James Kennedy
Bridget Margaret Grogan

Edward James Kennedy
Bridget Margaret Grogan
💍 1922/9577

Bachelor
Spinster

Caretaker Government Tourist Department
Waitress

32
30

Morere
Morere

2 years
About 8 years

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne

8367

13 October 1922

Rev. Thomas Kane, Roman Catholic Minister

No	136
Date of Notice	13 October 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward James Kennedy	Bridget Margaret Grogan
	💍 1922/9577
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Caretaker Government Tourist Department	Waitress
Age	32	30
Dwelling Place	Morere	Morere
Length of Residence	2 years	About 8 years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne
Folio	8367
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 October 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Kane, Roman Catholic Minister

137

16 October 1922

Hubert Horace Hays
Doris May Pollard Newcomb

Hubert Horace Hays
Doris May Pollard Newcomb
💍 1922/9579

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Tailoress

22
19

Gisborne
Gisborne

2 1/2 years
6 years

Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne

8368

Mary Pollard Newcomb (Mother)

16 October 1922

Rev. Horace Packe, Anglican

No	137
Date of Notice	16 October 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hubert Horace Hays	Doris May Pollard Newcomb
	💍 1922/9579
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Tailoress
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	2 1/2 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne
Folio	8368
Consent	Mary Pollard Newcomb (Mother)
Date of Certificate	16 October 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. Horace Packe, Anglican

138

18 October 1922

Timothy O'Halloran
Bridget Kiely

Timothy O'Halloran
Bridget Kiely
💍 1922/9580

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver
Cook

27
32

Gisborne
Gisborne

5 years
6 months

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne

8369

18 October 1922

Rev. Thomas Kane, Roman Catholic Minister

No	138
Date of Notice	18 October 1922
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Timothy O'Halloran	Bridget Kiely
	💍 1922/9580
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver	Cook
Age	27	32
Dwelling Place	Gisborne	Gisborne
Length of Residence	5 years	6 months
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Gisborne
Folio	8369
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 October 1922
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Kane, Roman Catholic Minister

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).